304 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



immediately on their arrivcil, and which includes their occupa- 

 tion. I filled mine in without any thought of the result, but on 

 my fifth day found myself called upon to pay 16 krones, whilst 

 my friend, who is fortunate enough not to have an occupation, 

 got off for 8 krones. I strongly protested at this manifest 

 injustice, but was met by the argument : " But you put yourself 

 down as a * director.' " I hastened to explain that however digni- 

 fied such an occupation might be in Hungary, in England there 

 were plenty of very poor directors ; but it was of no use, I had to 

 pay the 16 krones, and to console myself with thinking that some 

 at least of my entomological predecessors visiting Herculesbad 

 had paid considerably more. 



The Hohe Tatra is that portion of the great chain of moun- 

 tains, the Carpathians, which rises out of the plain north-east of 

 Budapest, at a distance of some 140 miles as the crow flies ; it 

 is the highest portion of the chain, rising in some of its peaks to 

 an altitude of nearly 9000 ft., and although not covering a large 

 area — which I suppose may measure roughly twenty miles by 

 ten — it contains some of the finest mountain scenery to be found 

 in Europe. Strange to say, in spite of this and that it also con- 

 tains some of the best hotels I have seen anywhere in Europe, the 

 Tatra is very little known to British tourists, and hardly at all to 

 those of us who are entomologists. For although I happen to 

 know that one or two British lepidopterists have visited it, there 

 do not seem to be any published reports in English of the 

 insect fauna of the region ; at least I have been unable to dis- 

 cover any, though of course it is well known to the Hungarians, 

 and in a lesser degree to the Germans.* 



It was therefore with considerable curiosity and anticipation 

 of something interesting that I proceeded thither. Unfortunately 

 during my stay of eleven days, from the 3rd to the 13th of July, 

 the weather was the very worst I have ever experienced in 

 continental Europe, and I was only able to get amongst the 

 alpine species on two occasions ; on the first I only had a few 

 minutes' sunshine, and on the second occasion, although there 

 was a fair amount of it, the temperature was so low I did not see 

 a single butterfly on the wing. Eventually, after several days 

 of almost continuous rain and mist, I had to give it up and come 

 away. 



The Tatra from the treeless plain, which has an altitude 

 of about 2000 ft. up to about 5000 ft., is thickly covered 

 with forests of spruce ; the hotels, of which there are a 

 number, are principally scattered about these forests at an 

 altitude of about 3000 ft. The climate is much colder than 

 at a corresponding level in the Alps, and the whole district 

 reminds one forcibly of some parts of Scotland. The moun- 

 tains are chiefly of a granite formation, though in the east 



- Cf. ' Iris,' vol. xiv, p. 365, et seq. [H. R.-B.] 



